A GROUP of 22 Khmer Krom asylum seekers, many of whom crossed into Cambodia from Thailand in December, have pleaded with the local UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for an extension of a financial assistance package that was set to expire on Tuesday.

GENEVA (16 April 2010) – The UN Independent Expert on human rights and extreme poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda, will visit Vietnam from 20-29 April to collect first-hand information on the situation of people living in extreme poverty and on efforts undertaken by the Vietnamese Government to improve their situation.

“Missions like this one are a very important opportunity for countries to review progress made in the promotion of human rights and renew their commitments,” said Ms Sepúlveda, who is the first UN Human Rights Council independent expert to visit Vietnam in over 12 years.

Mr. Huynh Ba, a Khmer-Krom peaceful activist from Soc Trang, has been sentenced to 2 years prison. Mr. Huynh was amongst a group of Khmer Krom people who have been conducting peaceful demonstration to demand for the return of his ancestral farmlands. On May 30, 2009 Vietnamese authorities arrested Mr. Huynh and he was detained until his trial recently on March 19, 2010.

LAST-MINUTE changes to a sub-decree regulating procedures for screening asylum seekers paved the way for the government’s forced deportation of 20 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers, violating their rights under local and international law, an Australian academic has asserted.